(Eagle News)– President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday (October 27) announced his courtesy call with Emperor Akihito was cancelled after the Emperor’s 100-year old uncle Prince Mikasa passed away.
“I’d like to express my deepest condolence,” the President said in a chance interview.
“The protocol officer…[said] huwag na lang akong magpunta doon because they are in mourning. I respect that because I would ask the same, maybe, request if I were in his shoes,” he added.
Duterte and Akihito were scheduled to meet before the President concludes his three-day official visit in Japan.
Before this, protocol-conscious Japanese were on faux pas alert Thursday with Philippine President Duterte due to meet Emperor Akihito, the nation’s most revered figure.
Duterte, who has made a habit of hurling sharp, even profane, insults at world figures, is on his first visit as president to Japan, a nation perhaps known more than any other for politeness and strict codes of conduct.
Concerns about Duterte’s behaviour during his trip spiked after a video of him in China last week meeting with President Xi Jinping showed him apparently chewing gum — considered rude in Japan for such an occasion.
He was also seen standing at the event with his hands in his pockets, another no-no.
Since arriving in Tokyo on Tuesday, Duterte has avoided any major trouble, though he has kept up a barrage of insults against Washington. Still, a summit meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday went off without a hitch.
Some Japanese were even worried Duterte will offend the deeply respected figurehead.
Most Japanese bow when meeting the emperor, though foreigners generally shake his hand.
“Why did you put your hands in your pockets and chew gum in front of President Xi Jinping?” asked Kunihiko Miyake, a former diplomat, in a column published in the conservative Sankei Shimbun on Thursday.
“Some see them as simple rudeness but I suspect these are also performances,” he added, noting Duterte’s privileged upbringing — his father was a lawyer and his mother a teacher — while the president himself is a one-time prosecutor. (with a report from AFP)
